A number of dates have been suggested for the composition of the Book of Job:
1) The patriarchal period
2) The reign of Solomon
3) The reign of Manasseh
4) The generation of Jeremiah
5) The period during or after the Exile.[1]
There are many good reasons to date Job's life to the patriarchal period:
1) Rare and archaic Hebrew words (40% of the vocabulary of the book)
2) A patriarchal family-clan type
3) Job's sacrifices as the head of the family appear to predate the institution of the priesthood
4) The mention of a very early unit of money (cf. Josh. 24:32; possibly Gen. 33:19)
5) Job's extensive life (he lived 140 years after the incidents of the book; cf. 42:16)
6) Similarities between the Book of Job and Psalms, Proverbs, Lamentations, Isaiah, and several other books
7) The preservation of the Book of Job in paleo-Hebrew at Qumran.
Job appears to have lived before Moses, and Moses likely recorded the events of Job's life about 1446-1406 B.C.
[1] Gleason L. Archer, Jr. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, rev. ed. (Chicago: Moody, 1985), 466.
I just did a personal study on this and researched all of the names and places of Job and his four friends. I agree with you that the events of the book take place during the time of the patriarchs. My guess is that it occurs during the time that the Jews are in Egypt (between Genesis and Exodus).
ReplyDeleteJob was from the land of Uz (Job 1:1). There were three men named Uz in the Bible, one in the early times after the flood (Gen. 10:23; 1Chr. 1:17) which seems to fit the context of the ice (Job 38:29–30). He was a descendent of Shem, which would also explain his religious convictions. The second was a nephew of Abraham (Gen. 22:20-21). The other later a descendent of Esau (Gen. 36:28; 1Chr. 1:42), which would not fit. There is another reference to the land of Uz by Jeremiah, but he refers to is as the land of the Edomites, who were Esau's descendents (Jer. 25:20; Lam. 4:21).
Job's livestock were taken by Sabeans (Job 1:15), who were around later (Isa. 45:14; Joel 3:8); and the Chaldeans (Job 1:17) who were related to the people of Abraham's father (Gen. 11:28, 31; 15:7), who were also around later (2Kings 24:2; 25:4, 5, 10, 13, 24-26; 36:17; Isa. 13:19; 23:13; 43:14; 47:1, 5; 48:14, 20; Jer. 21:4, 9; 22:25; 24:5; 25:12; 32:4, 5, 24, 25, 28, 29, 43; 33:5; 35:11; 37:5, 8-11, 13, 14; 38:2, 18, 19, 23; 39:5, 8: 40:9, 10; 41:3, 18; 43:3; 50:1, 8, 25, 35, 45; 51:4, 54; 52:7, 8, 14, 17; Ezek. 1:3; 12:13; 23:14, 23; Dan. 1:4; 2:2, 4, 5, 10; 3:8; 4:7; 5:7, 11; 9:1; Hab. 1:6, 15; Acts 7:4).
The first of Jobs three friends was Eliphaz (Job 2:1; 4:1; 15:1, 17; 22:1; 42:7, 9) the Temanite. The Temanites were descendents of the son of the first Eliphaz (Gen. 36:11, 15, 34, 42; 1Chr. 1:36, 45, 53). There was a city named Tema (Job 6:19) and also Teman (Jer. 49:7, 20; Ezek. 20:46; 25:13; Amos 1:12; Ob. 1:9; Hab. 3:3), but they could have been the same place.
The second was Bildad (Job 2:11; 8:1; 18:1; 25:1; 26:1; 42:9) the Shuhite (Gen. 25:2; 1Chr. 1:32), who were descendents of the relatives of the Midianites.
His third friend was Zophar (Job 2:11; 11:1; 20:1; 42:9) the Naamathite. There was a woman named Naamah, but she was around before the flood (Gen. 4:22). Benjamin had a son named Naaman (Gen. 46:21), but his descendents were called Naamites (Num. 26:40). There is another Naamah mentioned in Joshua (Josh. 15:41)...
The young man was Elihu (Job 32:2, 6) the son of Barachel the Buzite (Gen. 22:1). Buz was a brother of the second Uz, Abraham's nephew.
It appears that these men were all relatives or descendants of Abraham in some way, who lived north east around Midian.